Ariana Grande may have just had one of the biggest years of her career, but it’s not all awards and accolades for the Coachella headliner. The “Thank U, Next” singer shared photos of a healthy brain and the brain of a person with PTSD compared to a scan of her own brain two years after the tragic Manchester bombing—and they starkly illustrate the lasting effects of trauma.

Grande shared the images on Instagram Stories on April 12, and while the Stories disappeared after 24 hours, Grande’s fans were quick to grab screen shots. 

“Hilarious and terrifying,” she wrote on the brain scans that show how PTSD has changed her brain, along with the phrase “Not a joke.”

Grande has opened up about suffering from PTSD after the Manchester attack in the past. The pop star was featured on the July 2018 cover of British Vogue and spoke about how she coped with symptoms of post-traumatic stress in the wake of the Manchester bombing. “It’s hard to talk about because so many people have suffered such severe, tremendous loss. But, yeah, it’s a real thing,” she says. “I know those families and my fans, and everyone there experienced a tremendous amount of it as well. Time is the biggest thing. I feel like I shouldn’t even be talking about my own experience—like I shouldn’t even say anything. I don’t think I’ll ever know how to talk about it and not cry.”

She also referred to the physical symptoms of her PTSD in an August 2018 interview with ELLE. “When I got home from tour, I had really wild dizzy spells, this feeling like I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I would be in a good mood, fine and happy, and they would hit me out of nowhere. I’ve always had anxiety, but it had never been physical before. There were a couple of months straight where I felt so upside down.”

A suicide bomb detonated as fans were leaving Grande’s concert in Manchester, England, on May 22, 2017 killing 22 people, many of them teenagers and children. 

Grande responded to fans about the brain scan images after seeing their concerned responses. “Didn’t mean to startle anyone with my brain thingy,” she wrote on Instagram Stories. “I love science and seeing the physical reality of what’s going on in there was incredible to me. Someday, when I’m more healed up, we can talk more about it.”
 

    More Ariana Grande